


Instructions Unclear

by thoughtsappear



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Furniture abuse, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-31
Updated: 2017-01-31
Packaged: 2018-09-21 04:08:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9530852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thoughtsappear/pseuds/thoughtsappear
Summary: Next time, go to Ikea.





	

It seemed easy enough.

Yuri had found a bookshelf in a furniture store while shopping with Katsudon and Victor in Japan, and the three of them had charmed the owner into shipping it to Moscow without charging Yuri an exorbitant amount.

Yuri had almost forgotten about it, until one morning a box showed up on his doorstep, with Japanese lettering covering the outside and helpful arrows indicating which direction was the top. He promised Otabek coffee and breakfast later if he’d help him set up the piece. The owner of the furniture store was adamant that the bookshelf was very easy to assemble, only three steps.

Otabek knew better than to argue and so he followed Yuri to the living room, and together they opened the box and realized the medium sized bookshelf was composed of what seemed like a dozen smaller pieces.

The most egregious problem and the most pressing was the fact that the helpful included instruction booklet was written in Japanese and included no translation in Russian. No translation in any language, they quickly realized. Even English would have been more helpful than just Japanese as neither Yuri nor Otabek understood hiragana that well.

Yuri could already feel himself getting angry as he poured over the paperwork and the pieces. He cursed himself for ordering the stupid thing and for his shortsighted error. Otabek suggested gently that they call Katsudon and ask him to translate, but that would require Yuri to admit his mistake and he would never do such a thing.

Instead Yuri skipped past all the directions and went for the pictures, hoping he could cobble together how all the pieces fit and make sense of it somehow. He could see the slightest annoyance cross Otabek’s face as he tried in vain to make the wood relate somehow to the grainy black and white illustration of the finished bookcase.

Two hours later, the bookcase was still in pieces, Otabek was still waiting for coffee and the both of them were frustrated. Yuri had already gone on a long elaborate twitter rant about how the Japanese language was the most ridiculous thing ever invented and why does one language have three forms of writing and why does life have to be so hard! He’d also kicked one of the shelves, which hadn’t damaged it but had really hurt his toe.

“That’s it,” Otabek said, throwing the crumpled instruction pages down as Yuri limped around him swearing in all his favorite languages. “We’re calling Katsuki.”

“No!” Yuri said, wincing as he stepped down hard on his damaged foot. “I meant to put the shelves in upside down!”

Otabek raised his strong eyebrows and Yuri knew it was time to admit defeat. The fucking bookshelf had beaten them down.

Otabek used Yuri’s phone to FaceTime Katsudon, who was so happy for them to call that he chattered on so long about Victor, and Makkachin and the cherry blossoms and other inane bullshit, that finally Yuri had to wrestle the phone away from Otabek and interrupt Katsudon before he started in on Victor’s socks or something else as unimportant and boring.

“Katsudon!” Yuri shouted, waving the instructions at the phone to try to get his attention. “Remember the bookshelf I bought last summer?”

“Oh yes!” Katsudon nodded eagerly. “Did you put it together? Victor will want to see it—“

“No, shut up!” Yuri snapped. “Can you read these instructions to me?”

He held the paper still, and pointed his finger at the paragraph beneath the final illustration.

Katsudon made a big show of wiping his glasses with his shirt and peering into the phone’s screen.

“It says you need to secure the shelf with the 4 screws and the included bracket,” he told Yuri.

“Where’s the screws, Beka?” Yuri asked, nudging Otabek with his elbow.

“Screws?” Otabek asked in alarm. “We didn’t get any screws.”

“You’re fucking with me!”

“After the second time it fell apart, I turned the box upside down and shook it.” Otabek added with a frown. “Just in case we missed something.”

“According to the directions, the screws hold the bookshelf together, so without them the bookshelf won’t support any weight,” Katsudon explained. He was still squinting at the paper, even as Yuri began to shake with anger.

Otabek recognized the impending danger and quickly took Yuri’s phone back. “Okay thanks, tell Victor hello, we gotta go.” He hung up the call, but did not return Yuri’s phone. He knew better than give Yuri anything that could be used as a projectile.

Yuri took the directions and began shredding them into messy jagged pieces and dropped them carelessly on top of the pile in the middle of the living room.

“Go get my practice bag,” he demanded.

“You want to go to the rink?” Otabek asked. “That’s probably a good idea, we both need to let off some steam—“

“No, I’m gonna bludgeon this fucking bookcase into a pulp with my knife shoes!” Yuri shouted.

Otabek took in a deep breath and Yuri watched him expectantly. He was preparing for Otabek to reach out, pat him on the back and tell him to calm down, that it wasn’t worth getting upset over.

“You’ll ruin your skates,” he finally said. “Let’s load this shit back into the box, take it to your grandpa’s fire pit–”

“And light the bitch up, yes!” Yuri finished. He leaned over and kissed Otabek on the lips with a loud smack. “I fucking love you.”


End file.
